


We're In This Together

by Merlucafan



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:53:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27026146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merlucafan/pseuds/Merlucafan
Summary: Post 16x21 - Meredith takes Andrew home.*PREVIOUS USERNAME - GALP93*
Relationships: Andrew DeLuca/Meredith Grey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	We're In This Together

“I.. I don’t know what’s going on…” Andrew stammered, clutching his head in his hands. 

It broke Meredith’s heart to round the corner of the nurses’ station and see Andrew sitting on the floor in despair. The situation between them had been rocky to say the least over the last few months, but working on Richard’s case together had really started to feel like they were making progress. The couple had kept it strictly professional, but the tension was palpable; neither could deny it. It gave Meredith a glimmer of hope that they could get back what had been lost between them. 

Working on Richard’s case together, Meredith saw glimpses of the old Andrew - her Andrew. He was intent on solving this case. Cases like this stumped any surgeon, and the whole surgical floor was desperate to solve Richard’s case - he was an institution within the hospital. But Andrew seemed the most intent of all, which to some may look like the Suzanne case all over again, but Meredith knew Andrew better than those people. She suspected his intense help was his way of trying to make up for the way he’d treated her recently. Even if she didn’t always like to admit it, Richard was a father figure to her - more than Thatcher had ever been - and Andrew was one of the only people to whom she’d confessed her feelings for the man. 

So yes, their relationship had broken down recently. But seeing Andrew like this, finally admitting something was wrong with him, left Meredith with a lump in her throat. Her exhaustion after the long day following Richard’s diagnosis was all but forgotten, and she rushed over to Andrew. 

Meredith crouched down, keeping herself level with Andrew. Gently reaching out so as not to startle him, not sure if he’d push her away like he’d done so many times recently, she gently cradled his face rubbing her thumb softly against his cheek, soothing him. 

“Andrew, it’s ok. Let’s.. Let’s go home, okay? Can we just go home?” Meredith whispered to Andrew. 

The pair locked eyes for a few moments, and Andrew visibly calmed from his distraught state just the slightest bit. It was almost instantaneous, as if a fog had lifted from him. 

Andrew slowly stood up, tears still falling silently from his eyes. Meredith instantly wrapped an arm around his waist to support him, her other hand holding Andrew’s arm. Andrew looped his arm around Meredith’s shoulder, the feeling of her there grounding him even more. He was slowly calming down with her soothing voice and gentle touch. 

The pair stayed entwined as she led him out to her car where they finally separated so Andrew could get in. Meredith closed the door for him and walked around the car to the other side, slipping into the driver’s seat. As Meredith turnt the key in the ignition, she chanced a sideways glance over to Andrew, whose eyes were closed with his head resting on the glass of the passenger side window. To anyone else he may have looked peaceful, but Meredith had come to know the furrow in his brow when something was bothering him. She turned back to the road and pulled out of the hospital parking lot. 

The drive to Andrew’s apartment was a short distance from the hospital, a drive Andrew knew by heart now. Although his eyes were closed and his head leant against the glass, he could sense they were nearly there. His eyes opened when he sensed they’d missed his turning. 

“Mer, you missed the…”, Andrew began, a hint of confusion in his voice. 

“I know”, was all Meredith responded, keeping her eyes on the road in front of her. 

A small, almost imperceptible smile crept onto Andrew’s face as he looked over at Meredith before resting his head back against the cool window. Meredith said they were going home and he’s assumed she’d drop him off at his apartment and he’d be alone again. But she was driving to her house - he knew the route almost as well as he knew his own by now, spending more time there in the last year than he had at his own place. Meredith said they were going home. Her home. Their home; the home they’d made over the last year. As inappropriate as it may be given the current situation, Andrew couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope that he hadn’t lost her just yet. 

Meredith swung the car into her driveway and the pair both got out of the car heading for the porch, neither speaking a word. Andrew walked into the living room he’d come to know so well, a flood of memories hitting him. Meredith followed in behind him, closing the front door behind them. Taking a minute to pause and lean against the door, she stood in the middle of the room observing Andrew, just standing there still in his scrubs. He looked lost, like he didn’t know where to put himself in the room. 

Meredith walked up behind Andew and gently placed her hand on his elbow. The slight flinch when she touched him stung, but she hoped it was due to her pulling him away from his thoughts and back to reality rather than the contact itself. 

“Do you want to take a shower and get out of your scrubs? You still have some clothes upstairs you could change into”, Meredith asked softly.

“Sure, thanks”, Andrew replied quietly and headed upstairs. 

He paused at the bottom of the stairs, one hand on the banister and looked down, then at Meredith giving her an appreciative smile. 

Returning the smile, Meredith said, “Take your time, I’ll be down here if you need me”. 

Busying herself whilst Andrew was in the shower, she cleared the kids’ arts and crafts away from the table, smiling to herself at their drawings and then made coffee for herself and Andrew. She was just carrying the steaming mugs into the living room when Andrew came back down fresh from his shower. Meredith noticed how he seemed calmer in general, but fresh out of the shower he looked the most exhausted she’d ever seen him. His smile as he descended the last few steps didn’t reach his eyes, as if the dark circles weren’t enough to give him away. 

Andrew gingerly approached the couch where Meredith, as if he wasn’t sure he should be making himself comfortable there anymore. He took a seat and politely thanked Meredith for the coffee. It was difficult for Meredith to know how to approach the situation. On the one hand she was sympathetic, of course she was. Andrew had a mental illness and she understood the gravity of that, and how his mood could change at any moment - she’d witnessed that for herself on more than one occasion. But on the other hand, she loved Andrew. She wanted to help him, and she couldn’t do that if he kept pushing her away. So she decided to test the water for a little tough love. 

“Andrew. Will you stop acting like a guest here? Make yourself at home. After all, this was your home up until recently” Meredith said, with what she hoped was just the right amount of tension in her voice. 

Thankfully Andrew let out a huge sigh, as if he was releasing all the leftover apprehension from his body, sat back against the couch and closed his eyes, still clutching his cup of coffee like some sort of security blanket. Ok, progress, Meredith thought to herself. Meredith then chanced her luck a little more, shifting under the throw she’d wrapped around herself so she could sit a little closer to him, gently placing her hand on his knee. This time when she touched him, there was no flinch from Andrew; another small victory. Neither said anything for a few minutes, just sat in each other's company with this small amount of physical contact between them. Meredith knew that with enough time Andrew’s feelings would come flooding out and he would open up to her. 

Meredith had leant her head back on the couch and closed her eyes, when Andrew finally spoke. 

“So.. Richard.. He’s really ok?” 

Slowly rubbing her thumb back and forth over Andrew’s thigh, she replied after a moment.   
“Andrew, Richard is fine. He will be fine. Thanks to you. You saved him. You figured it out before any of us”, she replied softly. 

Andrew let out yet another deep breath. He drank the last dregs of his coffee and placed his empty mug onto the coffee table in front of them, then rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. 

“I.. I don’t know what... With Suzanne nobody would listen to me and I knew I was right which was so frustrating. And I’m not stupid, I know what this looks like, what this is. It’s what I always feared, becoming like him. But I know I was right, but everyone acted like they were afraid of me and treated me like I’m crazy”. 

Those words stung Meredith a little, that he felt like that. Should she have stuck by him more? Could she have helped somehow? 

“Andrew, I..” Meredith began before Andrew cut her off. 

“But with Richard it was different. I had no clue what was wrong with him, but I knew I needed to find out. For you. Working on his case with you and seeing how hurt you were getting that we couldn’t figure it out, I had to do it for you. I know what Richard means to you, Mer, and after all those horrible things I said to you….” 

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself or stew on what you said when you weren’t in the right frame of mind” Meredith interrupted, turning more to face him now. 

“But Mer, some of the things I said.. When I said I didn’t love you..I..I’m so sorry” Andrew replied, the remorse in his voice breaking her heart. 

Meredith couldn’t hold back anymore and reached out. She had to comfort him, like it was built into her to care for him. She reached for him and wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his back in comfort. Andrew allowed her to do it, and after a moment, mimicked her actions, wrapping himself around her too, taking comfort in her. Her smell, her warmth, the familiarity of being back in her home with her. This is what he needed; what was going to help heal him. 

Once Meredith felt Andrew was calmer, after embracing for what felt like an age, Meredith slowly unwrapped herself from him all whilst never letting go of his hand. She leant back into the sofa and tugged ever so slightly on Andrew’s hand, she urged him to lay with her. He laid his head in her lap, where they sat in comfortable silence. Andrew’s breathing got heavier, as he finally felt calm enough to get the sleep he so desperately needed and began to slowly drift off with the sweet motion of Meredith rhythmically stroking his hair. 

“Get some sleep, Andrew. I’ll be here when you wake up. We’ll get through this. We’re in this together, ok? I love you”. 

For the first time in weeks, a smile crept across Andrew’s lips. And although he was too exhausted to reply, they both knew they were back. Back together, back in each other’s arms. And they were in this together.

**Author's Note:**

> So I started writing this when the episode aired but I lost motivation and it's been sitting around for ages. Sorry it's a bit disjointed, I just wanted to get it finished and post! 
> 
> Desperate for any Merluca stories at the moment and cannot wait for s17! 
> 
> *PREVIOUS USERNAME - GALP93*


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